Caregiver Nyima Dolma was a happy and loving woman. The man who fatally set her on fire on the Kipling bus was found not criminally responsible.
A man who admitted to setting on fire caregiver Nyima Dolma by dousing her with lighter fluid at the Kipling Subway Station two years ago has been found not criminally responsible.
Dolma, 28, suffered burns to 60 per cent of her body after being doused with lighter fluid and set on fire in June 2022 at the station. She died in hospital 18 days later.
Dolma family members in happier times in new life in Canada.
Nyima was born in Tibet and was accepted in Canada with her family from India several years ago. They had been living in the Mundgod region in India, in an area known as a ‘Tibetan refugee establishment.’
Her dad, Tsering Pasang, had arrived in Toronto earlier and held three jobs as he awaited his wife and two daughters to join him for a new life in Canada.
Shocked TTC bus drivers mourn for Dolma with buses parked at Kipling Station.
Tserinmg couldn’t handle the sad news and committed suicide after hearing the shocking news of his daughter’s death in her new country.
“My sister was on her way to work as a professional caregiver when she was attacked by a stranger who threw lighter fluid on her and set her on fire,” according to her sister back then.
Tenzin Norbu, 33, of Toronto, was charged with first-degree murder in the shocking death of the “friendly and loving” Dolma.
Family members after moving to Canada from Tibet.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell ruled on June 11 that Norbu was not criminally responsible for Dolma’s death due to a “long-standing” psychotic state which rendered him incapable of fully understanding what he’d done.
Court heard that the two were strangers when Norbu approached her on the Kipling bus on June 17 and asked her if she was Tibetan. When she replied “yes” Norbu pulled out a jar of lighter fluid and poured it on Dolma before igniting it.
A medical expert testified that Norbu had schizophrenia and was incapable of knowing that his action were morally wrong and had delusions that the Tibetan community hated him.
Flags fly in memory of Nyima Dolma at a service at the Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre, on Titan Road.
He also abused alcohol and cannabis which exacerbated his symptoms and likely suffered from the disorder for many years.
Norbu, a newcomer to Canada, will be remanded to the Ontario Review Board for an initial disposition hearing in about 45 days.
The board will determine the hospital in which he will be detained and what privileges, if any, he will have. He cannot be released unconditionally until the board concludes he is no longer a significant threat to safety of the public.
Dolma comes from a loving family and hundreds from the Tibetan community attended a memorial service for her at the Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre, on Titan Road. A Go Fund Me page raised more than $20,000 to help with her funeral services.